AN: This was a pretty quick write and it's not really properly edited. Just a quick little oneshot about Christmas Eve at the Burrow, fourteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Age explanations: Hugo is 6 months (b. 2012), Rose is six (b. 2006), Teddy is fourteen (b. 1998), James is nine (b. 2003), Albus is six (b. 2006), Lily is four (b. 2008), Victorie is thirteen (b. 1999), Dominique is eleven (b. 2001), Louis is nine (b. 2003), Fred is eight (b. 2004), Roxanne is seven (b. 2005), Molly is Eleven (b. 2001), and Lucy is ten (b. 2002). Teddy (Ravenclaw), Victorie (Ravenclaw), Dominique (Gryffindor), and Molly II (Hufflepuff) are the only ones enrolled at Hogwarts. 2012.
Molly Weasley had more grandchildren than she could count. Teddy Lupin, a child whom she wasn't related to by blood but was still very much her family; Lily, James, and Albus Potter, the children of her only daughter and the Boy Who Lived; Hugo and Rose Weasley, Ron and Hermione's two; Fred and Roxanne Weasley, one of which being named after her deceased son; Victorie, Dominique, and Louis, Bill's and Fleur's; and Molly and Lucy, Percy's lovely daughters (even if Lucy could be a bit stiff for a ten year old.)
That with Charlie added, you can imagine just how hectic it got when the family gathered at the Burrow for Christmas Dinner.
Hugo, at the ripe old age of six months and the youngest Weasley to be in attendance, was seeming quite pleased with the amount of attention he was attracting as the baby of the family. Rose, however, seemed less than content.
"It's not fair!" The six year old whined, clutching her mother's side. Hermione simply chuckled at the child.
"They're just excited about the baby, Rosie," She pointed out as the two entered the living room, Ron continuing to proudly parade baby Hugo around the kitchen. "Besides. When you and Albus were the babies, both James and Roxanne were completely furious."
"Really?" Rose asked, eyes filled with curiosity.
"Yes, really."
Ron suddenly swooped in front the kitchen, a chubby baby in his arms. He pecked Hermione on the cheeks before passing Hugo on to her, gathering Rose up in his arms.
"Have you said hello to Grandma Weasley yet?" He asked her. Rose shook her head.
"She was busy with Albus."
"Let's go see her now then, eh?" He smiled, father and daughter advancing toward the kitchen. Hermione giggled at the sight of the two in matching Weasley sweaters, much like herself and Hugo.
Soon enough there was shouting and clamouring coming from the porch, a string of "Hello"'s and "Happy Christmas!"'s. Hermione peered around the corner, the entire Potter clan along with Teddy, Victorie, Dominique, and Molly II giving hugs and taking off their winter's clothes. Andromeda Tonks, who had already been at the Burrow for a few hours, pushed past everyone in order to smother her grandson with affection.
"That's my Teddy Bear! How are your grades? I've been getting your owls, but those can be terribly unreliable sometimes, what with people tampering and-"
"I'm fine, Gran, really." The teenager smiled widely, attempting to discreetly intertwine his fingers with Victorie's. If Andromeda noticed, she said nothing of it.
"Picked them up along the way," Harry said, slipping his Weasley sweater on over his rather fancy looking shirt. Harry and Ginny always made a point to visit Dudley Dursley for an hour or two each Christmas, letting the kids play with his cousin's children- Eleanor and Daisy Dursley- while Harry and Ginny chatted (quite awkwardly) with Dudley and his wife, Heather. Harry always urged them to spiffy up before they headed over there. Now all of his children were wearing their finest, most uncomfortable dress, each itching to get out of their fluffy dresses and argyle sweaters as soon as possible. Just then, Ron gave Harry a playful punch on the shoulder as a greeting.
"Ron, no offense, but I've just spent several hours travelling with seven children in a car that I can hardly drive because Lily desperately wanted to go in the Muggle Car. I will use my Dad voice on you by accident, you know," Harry warned, yawning in the process. Ron nodded, nudging the half asleep child sitting on his elbow awake. Rose's eyes flitted groggily at first, but she smiled widely as soon as the Boy Who Lived came into her field of vision.
"Unca Harry! Unca Harry!" She giggled, Harry gladly picking her up in his arms.
"Wow, Rose, you're getting big!"
Fleur bustled into the porch, nearly knocking her children off of their feet with a hug. Bill joined in shortly afterward and Louis, obviously not wanting to go anywhere near the Delecour-Weasley hug fest, stayed near the entrance to the porch.
Percy, unlike the others, attempted to greet his oldest daughter with a firm handshake. His gesture proved fruitless when Molly II leaped into his arms, crushing her father in her embrace.
Fred II ran right at James, eagerly pulling out an entire pocket full of chocolate frog cards and shoving them in his cousin's face. "Look James, look! I've got Dumbledore!" The child proudly waved his card in the air. "He was Headmaster when you were at Hogwarts, right mum?"
"Right you are," Angelina chuckled, patting her son on the head. Her daughter, Roxanne, was tucked away comfortably in the sitting room by herself, nose tucked into a book.
"Whatcha reading, Roxy?" George asked, settling down beside her. The seven year old cast him a hardened glare.
"The History of Magic. It's good, but a little harder to read when I'm busy speaking to you."
"Quite right," George grinned, "You're turning into Aunt Hermione."
"I heard that!" Hermione's voice bellowed from the sitting room. George and his daughter couldn't help themselves as they broke out in uncontrollable laughter.
The last to arrive was Charlie, covered with burns in varying degrees of healing. "Dragons are dangerous work," he explained, trying to slip his homemade sweater on over his shirt while also being bombarded by the little ones (namely James, Albus, Rose, Louis, Fred II and Molly II, who all thought that Charlie was the 'coolest and most greatest uncle in the whole entire universe.') Not that Percy approved of Molly II ever wanting to go near a dragon, but it was incredibly difficult to get her away from Uncle Charlie when he came around with brand new and exciting stories about his experiences in Romania.
"Now now, gather round," Molly shouted, calling all Weasley/Potter/Lupin/Tonks' around the table. It was evident that not everyone would fit, so Molly had taken it upon herself (meaning that she ordered Arthur to) set up the extra table in the living room. The children's table remained in the corner, where it had always been.
"To another year of health and happiness," Arthur, standing next to his wife, spoke. The others crowded in the kitchen repeated the words as they raised their glasses into the air. Everyone then branched off to their designated areas, with the children (Teddy, Victorie, Dominique, Louis, Fred II, Roxanne, Molly II, Lucy, Lily, James, Albus, Hugo, and Rose) and Fleur hurriedly pulled Hugo away before Hermione sat him down, explaining that if thirteen were to dine together the first to rise would be the first to die. It was almost like being in third year all over again, staring into the eyes of Sybil Trelawney over a cup of steeping tea leaves that would apparently predict her luck. Hermione laughed off the superstition at first, but found herself unable to place the child back down, instead setting up the highchair at the main table.
Bill's family settled themselves at the main table in the kitchen, along with George's and Percy's; Harry's family settled in the sitting room, with Ron's family and Charlie. Molly and Arthur situated themselves with Andromeda at a small dining table in the hallway.
One by one each wizard finished off their plate, Ron and Harry designated by Molly to clean and stack the plates back In the cupboard. They all piled into the sitting room, the children (and, admittedly, a good portion of the adults) were ogling at the magnificent pile of packages that sat under the glistening Christmas tree. To cut down on the cost, as the Weasley/Potter/Lupin/Tonks clan wasn't exactly rolling in Galleons, they'd decided to draw names from Arthur's hat for a Secret Santa type exchange. Hugo had been kept out of the exchange as well, as he was far too young to truly appreciate anything that he was given.
The exchange was kept mostly between the children, of course; it would have gotten far too hectic had the adults gotten in on it. The grown ups instead bought gifts for the significant others (or, in Charlie's case, a nice new set of dragon hide gloves for himself.)
Teddy had Victorie's name and vice versa, and most of the others suspected that this was no accident. From a small bag Teddy produced a box, containing a necklace, which he had enchanted to change colours depending on her mood. Both Hermione and Harry had to stop themselves from telling them that Muggles had a very similar trinket that did almost the same thing. Victorie, looking a little embarrassed at his gesture, kept her eyes to the ground as she passed him a box containing several different types of magical candy. Andromeda glanced at Bill and Fleur, both of whom were looking back at her with the same horrified expressions of confusion.
Dominique and Roxanne were next, the former receiving a set of emerald green dress robes and the latter a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
"We'll be making room for that next copy, I suppose. She and Fred've already got about a thousand between them," George muttered.
Rose passed Lily a messily wrapped package, one that the child was very proud of having "wrapped all by herself without any help from Mummy or Da." Lily fumbled with the package, her chubby hands tearing madly at the unicorn-covered paper. She seemed less than excited about the pink pinstriped jumper inside.
Ginny had picked out Rose's present without consulting her only daughter, and Rose was overjoyed to discover the Chudley Cannons jersey with "WEASLEY" written across the back that sat before her. Hermione groaned, but Ron's eyes lit up like the tree in front of them.
"You can turn Hugo into a bookworm, Mione, but Rosie's officially mine."
"She's yours? Really? I don't recall you being pregnant with her for nine months before spending twenty eight hours in labor at St. Mungo's, Ronald."
Harry burst into laughter almost immediately at the dumbfounded look that settled on Ron's face.
Louis confidently handed a pristinely wrapped package to Molly II, containing several pieces of Hufflepuff paraphernalia. She almost knocked the nine year old over with the hug that she gave him, immediately fastening the necklace with her house crest on it as a pendant around her neck. Louis' present was no less impressive, a shoebox filled to the brim with original stories the girl had come up with to entertain the young Delecour-Weasley for hours on end.
Lucy quietly passed James a package full of papers and notebooks, one that the nine year old glanced at before giving his parents a "do I have to pretend to like this?" Look. Ginny hardened her stare at her oldest son.
"Its… great, Luce."
"Tiny Percy, that one is." Charlie mumbled, picking at his nailbeds and keeping his gaze on the floor. Lucy merely rolled her eyes.
James' present to Lucy was a set of jinxed hair ribbons- he didn't tell her that, of course. They were jinxed personally by his Uncle George- someone who found Lucy to be severely unlikeable- so that the more she used them, the frizzier her hair would become until she made Hermione's first year hairstyle look good. Lucy accepted them without much emotion at all.
Last but not least, Albus and Fred II exchanged presents eagerly. Albus wasn't surprised that a non-flammable firework burst into his face upon pulling the ribbon, giggling in delight as Fred II silently high fived his father. The six year old continued to open his present until he discovered a variety of non-flammable firecrackers not yet detonated on the inside. Both Ginny and Harry couldn't help but glare at George.
"You do know he'll use that to torture his little sister, right?" Harry said, not happy to be using his parenting voice on his brother in law. George shrugged.
"Blame Freddie, not me. He picked them out." He said defensively.
Fred II then delightedly took a gift from Albus, which turned out to be several boxes placed inside of each other until finally, in the smallest box, Fred II discovered a round, silver object surrounded by tissue paper.
"It's a buzz shocker," Harry explained to the confused seven year old. "Muggle children play with them all the time. Here, put it on like a ring and shake Teddy's hand."
Fred II did as his Uncle Harry instructed, very pleased with himself when the older boy got quite the shock from the toy.
"Muggles play with this? Its barbaric!" Teddy scoffed, glaring at Harry and pacing back to his spot next to Victorie. The thirteen year old girl went as far as to check Teddy's palm for damage, which made George chuckle more than he should have.
A few more hours of merrymaking had everyone tuckered out enough to head home. Percy and Audrey left first, Molly II giving everyone a firm hug goodbye whilst Lucy merely uttered the words "see you" on the way out. Next were George and Angeline, George having to physically drag his son away from his cousins as Fred II tried to shock him with his new buzzer in an attempt to stay longer. Soon after was Ron and Hermione, Rose sobbing at the thought of leaving her cousins and Hugo screeching at Rose's sobbing.
When Bill and Fleur decided it was their time to go, they found that their oldest daughter had suddenly disappeared from sight. A quick headcount proved that a certain blue haired Ravenclaw was missing from the scene as well.
"Vicky! It's time to go!" Dominique bellowed, trudging through the confusing hallways of the Weasley's home. She checked in room after room, even opening a few closets until-
"Mum! Dad! Victorie's snogging Teddy!"
Quick as a flash the Ravenclaw's pulled themselves apart, both working to make themselves look a little less disheveled before three very angry sounding adults (and two bystanding Delecour-Weasley children) stalking up over the stairs.
Andromeda took Teddy by the ear before even giving Victorie a glance, her shrill voice ringing throughout the Burrow as she hauled him down the stairs. "Molly and Arthur Weasley invite us into their home for dinner, and this is the thanks you give them? Snogging their granddaughter!? If your parents could see you now, boy, your mother'd have you scared straight!"
Teddy didn't provide a response, and Victorie was guessing that Andromeda had shoved him into the fireplace and floo'd him home before either of them even had time to thank her grandparents for dinner.
Her father ushered her siblings out of the room, and for a split second she believed that she wasn't going to be yelled at for her actions. The Ravenclaw couldn't have been more wrong.
"Vat is ze matter vith you!?" Her mother had an almost entirely British accent now, so her French accent emerging meant that she was truly upset. "Your grandparents vill not tolerate you be-aving in zis manner, especially in zier 'ouse!"
"Sorry mum," Victorie sighed, looking down at the floor. "It won't happen again."
"It best not," Fleur's accent turned back to being almost entirely British. "Your father and I vill try to keep Andromeda from hexing you, but ve vill not be making any promises."
Soon enough Bill and Fleur managed to round up all of their children, saying goodbye to the other before leaving. The Potter's were planning on staying the night, along with Charlie, as all of them were far too tired to Floo home. Ginny and Harry nestled themselves in Ginny's old room, while their children found themselves stuffed in the room that George used to share with Fred.
"Jamsie. Jamsie Jamsie Jamsie." Lily tapped on the shoulder of her older brother repeatedly, even though he was clearly trying to get to sleep. He rolled over groggily.
"What?"
"I want you to tell me about Santa, pretty please? Mum told be he'd drop by tonight but then she sent me to bed."
"Oh, okay," James sat up. "For one, the whole thing about him living in the North Pole is complete rubbish. He lives in Belfast, last I heard, and he has a whole army of house elves to make the presents."
"A whole army?!" Lily exclaimed over Albus' steady snoring.
"I mean, it's quite a few. And then he apparates to all of the houses in the entire world to give the presents out. It's really neat!"
"I want to see Santa!"
"He won't come if we aren't asleep, Lil."
"Fine, fine."
James guided his sister over to the bed she'd be sharing with Albus for the night, making sure she was tucked in before heading back to his own bed, settling in for the night ahead.